Mt Cook Financial - Archived Thread

[Nick]

I'm pleased to confirm that we have partnered with Mt Cook Financial and they are now available to join under the VIP program.

So who's Mt Cook Financial?

They are actually a new brokerage started by a group of friends of ours who we've been doing business with for the past few years. I personally trust them more than any broker I've ever worked with (there have been a lot!). So much so that we've shifted across approximately $50k+ of our own money from our other brokerage accounts to be traded with them.

Click here to visit the Mt Cook Finanical website

The directors motivation and goals stem from their comprehensive and professional backgrounds as large Introducing Brokers and Money Managers. Security, razor tight spreads and deep liquidity providers are a given. Ultimately though, this brokerage was formed because of a clear understanding and objective in mind; to facilitate traders with a truly transparent and flexible environment.

They don't advertise or target retail traders. Their minimum account size is also whopping $25,000!

Clients of ForexSignals.com can open accounts from $20,000 with a reduced commission rate of $6.50 per lot for VIP clients. (we can negotiate a lower rate for self traded clients)

They are regulated in South Africa with client deposits are held at the Commonwealth Bank (Australia) or DBS bank (Singapore).

If you would like to find out more please email our account manager directly:

Eric - info@mtcookfinancial.com

The only downside is that they only accept deposits via wire transfer. However this minor hassle far outweighs the benefits in my opinion. It's also a little hard to fund $25k via Mastercard

[tsatsa]

Hi

Do they accept US residents or are you still working tallinex aswell ?

Regards. Tsatsa

[Nick]

Hi

Do they accept US residents or are you still working tallinex aswell ?

Regards. Tsatsa

Sorry, if you're a US client then Tallinex is your only option.

[idempotent]

[SIZE=4]They are actually a new brokerage started by a group of friends of ours who we've been doing business with for the past few years. I personally trust them more than any broker I've ever worked with (there have been a lot!). So much so that we've shifted across approximately $50k+ of our own money from our other brokerage accounts to be traded with them.

This is the second time I've heard of Mt Cook. Can you talk more about how you know them and why you trust them?

[Nick]

This is the second time I've heard of Mt Cook. Can you talk more about how you know them and why you trust them?

We first developed a relationship when they used our copier to distribute trades across multiple managed accounts several years ago.

When I was in Canada last year I spent a week with the MD who put me up in his house. We also went boarding on the slopes near Calgary for a few days, so I got to know him and his family pretty well.

That's why I trust them.

[Big River Man]

Has anyone opened an account with these guys yet?

I like the website. Money being shipped over to South Africa is a pain in the ass though. I have met hundreds of South Africans here in Australia and from what I have heard, I don't why anyone with money (as obviously the owners of this company would have) would actually want to live there unless they are purely running it through SA for cost savings. But then again I would of thought that Mauritius or somewhere else would be even cheaper than South Africa. Still interested to hear people's thoughts.

[Nick]

Has anyone opened an account with these guys yet?

I like the website. Money being shipped over to South Africa is a pain in the ass though. I have met hundreds of South Africans here in Australia and from what I have heard, I don't why anyone with money (as obviously the owners of this company would have) would actually want to live there unless they are purely running it through SA for cost savings. But then again I would of thought that Mauritius or somewhere else would be even cheaper than South Africa. Still interested to hear people's thoughts.

I'll see if I can get one of the guys from Mt Cook to comment BRM.

I've got about $27k AUD with them personally as well as a chunk of company funds we're using to test out a couple of new systems.

[Big River Man]

I'll see if I can get one of the guys from Mt Cook to comment BRM.

I've got about $27k AUD with them personally as well as a chunk of company funds we're using to test out a couple of new systems.

That'd be great

Sent from Uranus

[Big River Man]

Do you have any comparison accounts? I mean like a viper with them that may be able to show execution and spreads. Obviously there are costs involved with moving money around but if its worth it then it wouldn't matter.

Sent from Uranus

[Nick]

Do you have any comparison accounts? I mean like a viper with them that may be able to show execution and spreads. Obviously there are costs involved with moving money around but if its worth it then it wouldn't matter.

Sent from Uranus

Nothing public yet. It's running a portfolio, so a little hard to work out based on a myfxbook.

Using the analytics module between 13th May and 27th May it revealed that neither account missed a trade, but the corresponding pip gain for each account was as follows:

IC Markets: 153.1 pips (lost 48.1 pips in negative slippage)
Mt Cook: 172 pips (lost 29.2 pips in negative slippage)

Both these accounts are being copied on the same VPS and trading roughly the same lot size.

This also ignores the $0.50 discount you would receive on the trading commission as a VIP member ($6.50 instead of $7 at ICM), so Mt Cook is way ahead.

[Big River Man]

Thanks for doing that Nick.

Sent from Uranus

[littlemax]

Would the difference in negative slippage be partially accounted for by the lot sizes ie if it's substantially smaller than the IC Markets account lot size you are comparing it with Nick?

[Nick]

Would the difference in negative slippage be partially accounted for by the lot sizes ie if it's substantially smaller than the IC Markets account lot size you are comparing it with Nick?

No, the lot sizes are about the same.

I personally think it's because the popular brokers are fairly saturated by Viper's trades.

[MT.COOK]

Has anyone opened an account with these guys yet?

I like the website. Money being shipped over to South Africa is a pain in the ass though. I have met hundreds of South Africans here in Australia and from what I have heard, I don't why anyone with money (as obviously the owners of this company would have) would actually want to live there unless they are purely running it through SA for cost savings. But then again I would of thought that Mauritius or somewhere else would be even cheaper than South Africa. Still interested to hear people's thoughts.

Hi there Big River Man. I hope you are keeping well. Nick asked if we could reply to your question here. Please don't be alarmed if we cannot respond to many queries in here, but you can always direct any of them to info@mtcookfinancial.com and we will get you some answers, to anything - quick and thorough.

Regarding South Africa regs: prior to this we actually were licensed in New Zealand for 2 years, but recently (as in earlier this year) we voluntarily deregistered there (hence the name Mt.Cook - which is an NZ mountain, and also why we feel kind of foolish about that name now after leaving there ;-).

Things were getting rather arduous for us in NZ, as we were technically what was called a "reporting entity" (as we do discretionary fund management as well), and with this we were caught under both the derivatives licensing AND the DIMS licensing, which caused all kinds of hassle doing both, including the requirement for all of our clients of any type to provide notarizations (not required for non-reporting FSPs).

The primary reason we chose South Africa prior to deregistering was that it was the "path of least resistance" for us. We have friends there who provided us with jurisdictive regs for two categories which allows us to effectively and efficiently operate both DIMS and our clearing services for FX.

To be perfectly honest with you though Big River Man, we had many of the same hesitations you describe here before changing our license over to SA. However, I must admit, that the whole process with our rep and the FSB was surprisingly very pleasant and professional. You're right it cost more than we planned for and it took a little while longer (approx 6 months for approval) and we were subject to a lot of fit and proper tests etc etc.. But overall we are quite content with it.

You can read a post on the switch from NZ to SA we had written for our clients here: http://mtcookfinancial.com/2015/02/m...-south-africa/.

As on offshoot from this, we have also learned that it just so happens that FX is pretty BIG business in South Africa! It's extremely popular there. The few other brokers that operate there are pretty "big brand" names which you may recognize eg. ACM Gold, Saxobank, Iron FX, and ETX Captial and those 4 have a pretty big and competitive "grip" on the market share there. After coming in with our boutique model and focusing on helping traders and in particular managers actually grow their business, its been pretty well received and the start of many good things we feel.

So getting back, technically you do not need to ship funds off to South Africa. We simply are licensed there, and have one staff there currently who helps us with some work and keeps us up with our regs. Regardless of our license, client funds all end up at the same place - with our PB in London. Our primary custodian banks are Commonwealth Bank Australia and DBS Singapore so those are the places clients actually send their funds to.

In the later part of this year we will be looking at a few other licensing options as well. I hope that that helps answer your question, but if not feel free to drop us a note at the email above and we will be happy to go in to any further detail with you, or any of Nick's community here.
Have yourself a great weekend!
Best Regards,
Jake

[MT.COOK]

Just as an aside Big River Man, on the "why would anyone live there" note... I cannot speak from experience, as I don't live there, but the more people from Cape Town we meet, it seems there is no other place they would rather live! It could be pride of course.

There is an interesting history there, and no doubt they have had some problems just as many other nations, but there is no denying one thing - Cape Town is without a doubt one of the most "visually stunning" cities in the world (nice shot: http://www.travelstart.co.za/blog/wp...reg-Lumley.jpg) and the climate there, is that of "eternal spring". Nice for those who do not like the sweltering heat or freezing cold. Certainly some appeal.

At any rate, I will be there before the year is out so will see for myself . I think that the "beef" with you Auzzies (and Kiwis as well) is that you guys deep down have internal rugby conflicts to deal with in regards to South Africa